Life of Liam

Writing is something I have always enjoyed and, in recent years since starting this blog, it has become an outlet for me to express how I am feeling. In my final years of high school, for assignments, I began writing about issues which were very close to me - in particular, as I grew more comfortable with my sexuality, I used my writing to understand what I was going through and how I came to understand my sexual orientation. I started this blog to provide a public space for me to comment on my life's experiences and what I was making of the world around me. As my blog has grown, writing has become more important to me and has been an essential part of my life as I progress into adulthood. My writings come from a place deep inside and are cathartic in nature - they allow me to expel my (potentially corrosive) thoughts and emotions in a healthy and safe way. Writing allows me to connect and engage with what is happening inside my head, giving me a space to analyse and understan...

September 6th was the three year anniversary of me moving out of home and beginning my first step into adulthood. In 2014, I moved from Livingston to Glasgow. Not too far away from home, but far enough away that I would begin to understand what is was like to live independently. Timehop  is an app which lets you know what you were doing in previous years each day, based on your social media updates. Seeing my previous posts on social media is nostalgic for me but also an awakening reminder of the person I was when I first moved to Glasgow and how much my life has changed since. Timehop serves as a good and a bad reminder of my past. It often reminds me of past events that I have forgotten about, but the memories of those (often petty) tweets or cringey status updates make laugh. Sometimes, however, Timehop reminds me of the hard times in my life and of some of the people who I have met in my life that perhaps didn't treat me right. More often than not, however, Timehop just make...

Note from Liam: an edited version of this post has been included on The Glasgow Guardian's (University of Glasgow student newspaper) website as part of their LGBT History Month 2018 coverage. You can see that post here . 2017 marks 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalised in the United Kingdom (which applied only to England and Wales). Scotland would not legalise homosexuality for another 14 years until 1981. Photo Credit - DrRandomFactor (Wikimedia Commons) 50 years. It really is not a long time at all. 50 years is within my parents' generation, which means that those older than 50 were alive in a time where homosexuals could be legally reprimanded for being themselves. For Scotland, it is only 36 years which is even less time and may include some people of my generation. Although a lot of change and progress has occurred in the past 50 years, I think it would be ludicrous to try and ignore the fact that homophobia still exists in some form in Scotland and need...

I have been thinking a lot about social media recently, whilst looking at those around me, and I just cannot ignore how false it all is. I have written about social media before, and will be writing about this topic for my upcoming university dissertation, because it is impossible to ignore. We are living in a real life “Black Mirror” episode. We have become that dystopian society that is described in fictional stories as a warning to us so we do not become mindless robots consumed by technology. We are living our life for social media, for others to see, for the likes and validation. I am guilty of this myself and it is beginning to take its toll on me. This is a topic I feel very strongly about because I see so many around me suffering from different issues and I believe that social media and constant connection to the internet is playing a massive role in these issues. I want to find answers. I want to find explanations. The way people act online compared to real life is very dish...

Note from Liam:  an edited version of this post has been included on The Glasgow Guardian's (University of Glasgow student newspaper) website as part of their LGBT History Month 2018 coverage. You can see that post  here . The phrase "coming out of the closet" is a metaphor largely associated with someone disclosing their sexuality to someone else. I am not a huge advocate for "coming out" and making a big deal about not being straight. For me, sexuality is another part of your individuality and identity which does not require validation from others. However, because we live in a heteronormative society, which likes to put labels on things and have out-of-the-norm things overtly expressed, then "coming out" has become something which most LGBT people will experience at some point in their life. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a German gay rights activist, introduced the idea of coming out in 1869 as a means of emancipation. In a time where the LGBT communit...

This is a topic which has been plaguing my mind for the past few months due to a number of events happening around the world and it is one which I have no clear or satisfactory answer to. I am growing up as part of the millennial generation, who is often the butt of people's jokes and criticism, and something we have become known for is our extreme political correctness and ease of being offended. In our eyes, however, we are just humans who believe in equality for all and will do our best to tackle injustice wherever we see it. The line between free speech and hate speech initially seems quite obvious. As soon as it comes to discriminating against someone then it is hate speech, right? However, the more I think about it, the more arbitrary it becomes and the more I notice that people can often shift the line depending on the argument at hand. Those who are often criticised for their controversial and offensive views use free speech as a way to argue that it is essential in order...

It's okay that you fell off the bike because learning is a long process. Just get back on and try again. It's okay that you felt embarrassed when you tripped up in the playground in front of everyone because accidents happen to everyone, at least you weren't badly hurt. It's okay that you are not enjoying a new pastime because we need to try new things in order to find out what we like and what we don't. You tried it and you tried your best - that's all that matters. It's okay that you sometimes find it hard to socialise and make friends because social skills can take time to develop for some people, I am still learning today. It's okay that you sometimes feel like there is nobody to turn to because dealing with your own mind can be the hardest part of being human, but we must be open to letting others in. Together we are stronger. It's okay that nothing makes any sense right now because it will all fall into place eventually. ...

"Now, are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then we will begin." Remember that episode of Doctor Who (back when the series was still watchable and David Tennant was the Doctor) when The Wire sucked off the faces of the residents through the television and trapped them within the screen leaving their bodies as lifeless and faceless beings? Well, I believe that the episode predicted the future of society but, rather than television, it is our phones that have sucked up every morsel of our lives, personality, and humanity. We have become almost faceless and soulless beings in real life who can only exist or survive through a screen on social media, as if trapped by some external force. The big phenomenon is that the majority of us cannot seem to live our daily lives or do basic tasks without first consulting our phones. It seems to have been ingrained into our generation that Social Media and our phones are more important than real life and spending real moments with re...

As the days get closer to Glasgow Pride, I find myself reflecting on my own sexuality and how much life has changed for me in the past few years. To make a long story short, my personal experience with being gay is not exciting, or tragic, or painful. From personal memory, I realised I was gay over a period of time and there was no one moment where I had a gay epiphany and Lady Gaga came down on a rainbow unicorn to throw glitter over me (although that would be awesome). But I suppose my story is still important to tell because it is important for younger LGBT people to understand that being LGBT does not have to be a big or dramatic realisation. Life for an LGBT person does not have to be a struggle and you are not always going to be persecuted for it. I became more comfortable with being gay as I grew older, but there was a period of time when I thought I would grow up, have a wife and kids and live in a perfect white picket fenced house in a nice neighbourhood. That was most lik...

Welcome to social media, Where likes have become a currency, More likes, more success, more money. The elite stay in the penthouses Built upon a foundation of filters, Held up by beams of likes, egotism and narcissism. In the gutters, Those without the look fail To even reach numbered status, And are instead plagued With the embarrassment of named followers. Less personal has become more successful. Selfies, statuses, updates. Every moment of every life, Recorded for all to see. Time is dying, moments are passing. Apps live and remember for us. Living life through a screen, Experiencing precious moments in binary, Falsifying reality to experience "real life" Those who don't conform don't belong, We are becoming robots of the web, The black widow feeding off our souls. Our addiction fuels hers, An endless cycle, Likely to end in destruction.

A subject that has been brewing slowly since the beginning of social media is the negative impacts it has. Australian model  Essena  O’Neil, who was very active on social media has made a video to tell the world why she is quitting social media (this video has since been removed along with her YouTube account. It all basically comes down to the issue that it is all fake. She describes how a simple looking Instagram post would have taken hours to shoot to determine the ‘correct’ pose and she would be told to post it at a certain time on a certain day. From that point of view, when your personal life is determined by a mathematical equation as to when you’ll get the most likes or the most public coverage then your life becomes surrounded in numbers – which was another point O’Neill made in her video. Numbers. They are the crux of social media, from the time you post the photo, status, video  etc.  to get most likes to how many likes you actually get. And in the end...